Facebook IPO

Before the Facebook IPO happened, there was a big hubbub about it. Now, several days after the social networking giant finally went public, everything is all said and done and no one will ever talk about it again. Just kidding; there's still a big hubbub about it. Many smaller shareholders now allege that Facebook kept pertinent information from them -- information that made Facebook stock look less valuable while sharing it with high-caliber investors.

Now that the Facebook IPO is finally going down, you're probably wondering "what exactly happened?" If so, this "re-enactment" from everyone's favorite Taiwanese Animation house Next Media Animation is the perfect primer on what totally didn't happen. That said, you're good old pal Zuckerburger totally has enough money to do pretty much whatever he wants. The fact that it wasn't this is just a coincidence.

The Facebook IPO finally went through this morning and Facebook stock is available for trade on NASDAQ. Hoorah. You'd be hard-pressed to get your hands on any shares (currently $40.99 a piece) but your good pal Zucks has his obscene fortune tied up in his 503.6 million shares (now $41.07 a piece) of Facebook stock. Curious how much those shares are worth at any given time? Of course you are; everybody likes witnessing the exact value of someone else's absurdly large fortune ($20.67 billion, up from $20.64 billion like 2 minutes ago), right? Luckily there's a widget for that.

The Facebook IPO keeps rumbling toward completion while Facebook scrambles to monetize anything and everything as fast as it can. The announcement of the App Center and the testing of highlighted posts are only the beginning of what we can expect from Facebook as a public company, but what about where it is at right now? Not a bad place. Mark Zuckerberg makes a hefty $66.94 per second and is heading for a valuation larger than Boeing or even Starbucks. Does it deserve that? We'll find out soon. In the meantime, you can study up on all the interesting facts and figures with this infographic from MBA Online and come to your own conclusion. Check it out after the jump.

The big news on the net today is that, according to a CNBC poll, a whopping 46% of Americans think Facebook is little more than a passing fad. In addition, the poll revealed that 51% of Americans think Facebook stock would be a good investment (31% don't), and 50% think the service is overvalued. Despite what those polled might believe, America is home to roughly 200 million Facebook accounts, or nearly two thirds of the population. Enlightening? Well, insofar that it reveals what Americans tend to think, sure. But about the facts of the matter? Probably not so much. It might be wise to consider a few of the other things polls have revealed about American beliefs. Let's have a look, shall we?

Facebook Co-Founder Eduardo Saverin, who you may remember as "that laptop-freakout guy Andrew Garfield played in The Social Network," is no longer a U.S. citizen. Instead, he has opted to be a citizen of Singapore exclusively. The publication of his name in the Federal register Quarterly Publication of Individuals Who Have Chosen to Repatriate indicates that he renounced his citizenship sometime before April 30th. Why? Probably taxes.

Ever have something to say that just needs to be heard by everyone? It used to be enough that Facebook let you announce things to hundreds of your "friends" at the same time, but now that rush is wearing off, and everyone is saying so much that it's easy to get buried. Would you be willing to pay $1 to make sure your obnoxiously cutesy note to your schmuggum wuggums is at the top of everyone's feed? $2 to make sure Suzy knows you've got a new girl now and definitely aren't thinking about her at all, not even the tiniest bit? If Facebook's "Highlight" feature comes to pass the way Stuff.co.nz is reporting, you might be able to do just that.

Back in 2005, it was decided that the Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California needed some sprucing up. It needed a paint job of some sort, but not something bland and corporate. No, something fun, colorful, and interesting. As such, Facebook hired graffiti artist David Choe and commissioned a few stupid dope burners, offering him a choice of payment upon their completion: He could either take a few grand, or some stock. You can probably guess which choice he made.

There have been rumblings of Mark Zuckerberg making Facebook a publicly traded company for some time, but new information seems to point toward the possibility of a whopping $100 billion initial public offering (IPO) valuation. Such a valuation could raise huge amounts of money for the company, founded barely seven years ago when Zuckerberg was at Harvard. Those events have already been immortalized in film, and Facebook's continuing struggles with privacy are the stuff of Internet legend, but a massive IPO would almost certainly open a new chapter for the social networking giant.